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NOTE: This is an updated version of a post I wrote five years ago, about the writing process, or at least “my” writing process. As we near the release of Magicians Impossible I wanted to revisit this piece, and add some additional flavor.

I’m not much for talking about my “process”. There are plenty of places you can look to read about “process”, and there are plenty of people who are happy to share what their process is. They’re all interesting and informative, and also contradictory and probably of little use to you. That’s because they’re talking about their process; they aren’t talking about what process works best for you. Some insist on powering through the first draft and revising after it’s finished; others swear by revision as you go. Some obsess on word count or pages per day; others are concerned only with “good” pages. Some brave souls rise at 5am and write for three hours before starting the day proper; others write in the evenings when the day is done. Some say you need to write every day; others say weekends are fine. They’re all right … and they’re all wrong.

So here’s a piece about my process. Please feel free to ignore it.

For me it all starts with the idea. Sometimes it’s a detailed idea; other times it’s just a rough sketch. From there I think about whose story “my” story is; the characters. Male or female, child or adult – I’ll try various combinations and complications before settling on POV. From there, assuming the story I’ve put together is any good, and the characters I’ve conceived are going to be interesting enough to follow, I clear the decks, close my door and start writing. I outline before I draft, I treatment after I outline, I look for leaks and plug plot holes the best I’m able, and once that’s done, I start writing. Because if I don’t, this happens:

Pictured: What happens when you don’t plug leaks, or when your manuscript/screenplay hits an iceberg.

But before I do any of the above … I listen to music. Music may in fact be the most important part of my process. If I haven’t decided on what music I’m going to write to, chances are I won’t be able to do any writing, and what I do write will be shit.

Okay maybe not shit, but difficult.

My favorite approach to this is to assemble a playlist or mixtape to accompany whatever particular project I’m working on. This is music that gets me into “the zone”, but more importantly into the character’s heads. I’ll tailor a playlist to a specific character, and use the songs I choose to illustrate their personalities, their hopes, their fears, their everything. I’ll create several such playlists for any given project, and I’ll listen to them when I’m focusing on a particular character or subplot.

Pictured: my soundtrack

There are a couple of reasons for this. The first I already mentioned; to get into the characters and the world they inhabit. But the second is more basic; to get me going. Because some days you just … can’t … get … into … the writing part of writing.

You have lousy sleep or a lousy day. You’re at one of those points in the story where you’ve lost the plot. You want to do anything but write. Every writer has days like this. But since I started creating playlists those days are fewer and come further between.

That’s where the playlist comes in. Because you’ll sit there and you’ll listen to it, or you’ll throw it on your iPod and go for a walk, and pretty soon the story will come back to you. And once the story comes back to you, you’re able to write it down.

Now, this music doesn’t have to be of the period the project is set in; in fact I’d strongly advise against that. The reason you create a playlist is not to be authentic but to be real. To connect with the characters and the story on an emotional level. So unless you grew up listening to Civil War era grassroots music, using that music to score your Civil War era story is going to make it a dry museum piece. Ask yourself what your characters would listen to if they were alive today (and seeing as they are your characters they are alive). Would they be into rock? Punk? Country? Hip-hop? Put yourself in their headspace and assemble a list of songs that relate to them, their trials, and their troubles. See them as living, breathing people, not just words on the page and an idea in your head. Once they become “real” to you, they will be to the reader.

Some examples: my first (unpublished) novel was a murder mystery set in Renaissance Italy. It was written primarily to 60s British Invasion and 90s Britpop. There are two main characters, each with alternating perspective chapters. One was 50-something, the other a 20 year-old. Any time I was writing for the older character I lived on a steady stream of Rolling Stones, The Hollies, Manfred Mann, and the Yardbirds. For the 20 year-old, it was Blur, Oasis, Elastica, Inspiral Carpets, Happy Mondays, and so on.

Squadron, a TV series I’m developing with Copperheart Entertainment, was largely written to early 90s alternative; grunge mostly, but a lot of Pogues, Dropkick Murphys, early U2, Depeche Mode, and Duran Duran. I wanted to capture a feeling of excitement in the lives of WWI flyers, all young twenty-somethings taking to the skies to vanquish their enemies. Because a substantial portion of the story deals with the after effects of being the most famous killers in the world, I balanced fast paced rock with more introspective music for the quieter moments.

There are other examples. A suspense thriller I wrote some years back (also unsold – see the pattern?) was scored to a lot of Madchester-era music, which is appropriate given the main character has walled herself off from the world and is living in something of a nostalgia bubble. It made sense for her to be into the music she was into as a teenager, like she never grew past 2000. A thriller I wrote for a prod co about an EMT on the edge had a lot of 70s Punk in the mix – The Diodes, The Demics, The Clash, The Ramones. Music that reflects the thoughts of a main character living on the edge.

And there’s Magicians Impossible.

The Magicians Mixtape (which will be released on Spotify September 12) is pretty eclectic, featuring Metric, The Kills, The Dread Weather, T. Rex, David Bowie, The Jam, The Vaselines, XTC, The Human league … the list goes on. That playlist is distilled from about seven separate ones I created, each focusing on a major character or moment in the story. Because a novel has more working parts than a screenplay or comic book, I needed to go into greater musical depth. The end-result 50 track mix loosely follows the plot of the book and is a great accompaniment (though I recommend you listen to it after reading the book).

That all being said if your particular project is of a period where music – contemporary music – is available, use it. If there’s an emotional component also, even better. The novel I’m drafting right now features music as a major plot point; specifically one-hit wonders of the 80s and 90s. The music the main characters – all teenagers – would have grown up listening to because that was the music of their parents’ generation.

So that’s it, really. That’s my process and it probably only works for me. But maybe it’s worth a shot if you’re stuck on a plot point or something with your story that just isn’t working for you. If you can’t figure out where your character goes next, why not think about the music they would enjoy and the memories that would be associated with it?

In the end, you need to find what works best for you, and stick to that. Don’t let people like me or anybody else tell you what you’re doing is wrong because it’s not wrong; it’s right for you. As long as what you do works for you it’s better to stay on that track than try and write like someone else.

You’re probably asking; what happened to you, man? Where you been? What happened to June? You were doing so well with the updating more frequently thing.

All true. I had planned a June update but as Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park said, “life uh, finds a way.” Stuff happened. Work stuff. Life stuff. Book stuff, including a meeting with my agent, editor, and the marketing and publicity people at St. Martin’s Press.

We’ve all been busy. And it’s been paying off in spades:

“Magicians Impossible is a mind-bending page-turner! A brilliant and unique mash-up of spells, myth and magic, once it got its claws in me I couldn’t put it down. Like a veteran stage magician, Brad Abraham has created a hip thriller that turns convention on its ear with misdirection. A must read for enthusiasts of edgy and extreme fiction.” ―Don Coscarelli, director of Phantasm, John Dies At The End

“Urban fantasy hasn’t felt this fresh – or this compulsively readable – since Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. Abraham has conjured a pitch-perfect fever dream of myth, magic, intrigue, and pulse-pounding action, set in a vividly imagined underworld of dangerous cabals and supernatural espionage. It’s a spell you won’t want to break.” – April Snellings, author, Food Chain

“From the first sentence, Abraham pulls you in to a darkly magical, energetic world where anything can happen … and pulls the rug out from under you when you least expect it.” Rodrigo Gudino, Founder, Rue Morgue Magazine

“An action-packed, thrilling fantasy with surprises around every corner and behind every door!” Erika Lewis, author, Game of Shadows

“Part hard-boiled thriller, part magical mayhem, Magicians Impossible is a page-turning adventure where the stakes are high and the magic is mind-blowing. It’s urban fantasy at its very best.” – Lisa Maxwell, NYT bestselling author of The Last Magician

“From the first page, Brad Abraham’s Magicians Impossible is a high-wire act that doesn’t let up the excitement for even a paragraph. Simply put, Magicians Impossible is a book I wish I’d written.” – Libby Cudmore, Author of The Big Rewind

Those are the blurbs, and I want to thank each and every one of these immensely talented writers and artists who took the time out of their busy schedules to read my work and say nice things about it.

I’ve known Don Coscarelli almost 20 years now, and he took time out of a very busy spring when he was working on both Phantasm Ravager and the 4K restoration of Phantasm with JJ Abrams to read the book.

I’ve known Rod Gudino almost as long, and was hired by him to write for his then brand new magazine called Rue Morgue – a gig I stuck with for over ten years.

Through Rue Morgue I met the immensely talented April Snellings who has continued her involvement in helping my career along, encouraging me to join International thriller Writers alongside her and so many other talented authors.

I don’t even know Pierce Brown, but this NYT bestselling author was gracious enough to read and blurb the book anyway.

I met both Erika Lewis (my “book-mate” at St. Martins Press) and Lisa Maxwell (who just became a NY Times bestselling author) through Twitter, and they were both kind enough to carve out some time to read the book as well. Erika’s Game of Shadows and Lisa’s The Last Magician are in bookstores now.

Last but most certainly not least is Libby Cudmore; mixtape enthusiast, journalist extraordinaire, and author of The Big Rewind. We’ve had many an interaction online and by email over the last while ans I’m especially thrilled to have her endorsement on the book.

As a creative person you really stand on the shoulders of giants.Please click on the links, visit their websites, and buy their books/movies/magazines.

As far as Magicians Impossible is concerned, here’s some excerpts from the first reviews:

As far as Canadian dates, right now my publicist is setting up an in-store in Toronto. No firm date yet, but I will be in Toronto the week of October 9-13 for Bouchercon, so expect something around then. It’s a hometown crowd, so I’m very excited to see who shows up.

There’ll also be various events through the fall, most likely sticking to the Northeast. This will included an appearance at SMP’s booth at New York Comic-Con.

If you own/manage a bookstore and are interested in hosting an appearance you can contact me directly through this website (info in my bio).

And of course, Magicians Impossible arrives in bookstores September 12, 2017. You can order it at fine bookstores everywhere.

In case you missed the news, 40 years ago today a little movie called Star Wars arrived in theaters. it was not expected to do well. In fact, George Lucas was so convinced it would be a disaster he fled Los Angeles for Hawaii to build sand-castles with his buddy Steven Spielberg, where they ended up hashing out what would become Raiders of the Lost Ark.

But of course Star Wars did not flop. Star Wars became STAR WARS, and we’ve been living with it for four decades now. In the last two years we’ve seen two new Star Wars movies, and this Christmas we’ll see another. It’s not inconceivable for Star Wars to outlive the generation that grew up with it. It’s a piece of modern myth-making writ large.

Scads of words have been written on its cultural significance but ever person has a different story about the role Star Wars played in their lives. For me it began in 1977 as a 4 year-old whose father took him to an evening show to see some movie a co-worker had told him I would enjoy. He bought me a bag of popcorn and cup of cola and apparently when the Star Destroyer flew overhead in the famous opening shot the popcorn hit the floor untouched and I stared, open-mouthed at the screen for the entire two hours.

I was captivated. And as a child who lived in four different cities by the time Return of the Jedi arrived six years later, Star Wars had become the constant friend in a childhood with not many of the real kind.

After Jedi, Star Wars faded from the landscape and my life. There was a brief resurgence on the 10th anniversary when I picked up a special issue of Starlog magazine, but Star Wars was pretty much dead by 1987, through the early 90s. Then the Timothy Zahn series of Star Wars books arrived. then the Dark Empire comic book series from Dark Horse. the Power of the Force toy line made its debut in 1995 and I was on my second Star Wars kick, which lasted all the way to 1999, and the release of The Phantom Menace.

I have not come to bury the prequels or to praise them either. What I will say once Revenge of the Sith hit theaters that it was pretty much a given Star Wars was finished. there would be the Clone Wars TV series which, despite a rough start, became a genuinely wonderfully realized story. But Star Wars on the big screen; that was done, right?

So we’re living through the third Star Wars cycle and its unlikely to end anytime soon. Sure, a few consecutively crappy films could happen, but if 007 could survive nearly sixty years, Star Wars could last at least to 2037.

For me Star Wars will not end. That’s because my child, who turns two this July, is approaching the age I was when I first saw Star Wars. I’ve gone back and forth on how to introduce him to the series. By the time he’s four, Episode IX will have come and gone, so he’ll have the entire Skywalker saga at his fingertips. Do we run the series in order – 1-9 – with Rogue One and the hitherto untitled Han Solo movie (and if it’s NOT called Han: Solo they suck)? Do I show him Episodes 4-9 and pretend the Prequels don’t exist? What about Clone Wars and its spin-off, Rebels?

No, I need a plan of attack … and think I’ve found one.

On the day he’s ready, I’m going to ask him if he wants to watch a movie. I’ll put on Star Wars and hopefully he’ll be dazzled by it. But rather than segue right into The Empire Strikes Back, I’m going to let him live with Episode IV for a little while. Let him engage with the story, the characters, let him play with the toys and imagine their own future adventures. Then, when his interest in it starts to wane, I’ll show him The Empire Strikes Back, and we’ll repeat the process. I want him to be re-introduced to Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, and the droids. I want him to gasp at the revelation of what happened to Luke’s father. Then when that’s run its course, Return Of The Jedi.

I want to let him live with those movies as long as he wants to. Then, when he’s losing interest, I’ll ask him if he’d like to see how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader.

We’ll watch the prequels in quicker succession, not because they aren’t as good (I like parts of them I don’t like other parts, and am well outside the demographic when they were released anyway), but because they’re too interconnected.

After that we’ll dive into Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels which, buy the time that wraps up, should segue into Rogue One. By then the current trilogy will have concluded, and with the weight of the entire saga behind us, we can watch those however we want to.

As you can probably tell, I’ve given this a lot of thought.

But as far back as I can remember, my life has been one where stories were shared in a multitude of ways. From bedtime stories read to me by my parents, to my father taking me to see one of his favorite movies 2001: A Space Odyssey when it played as part of a roadshow re-release in the 1980s.

I want to pass these movies on to my child because how stories are told matter as much as what they tell. I want him to cherish these stories, but to also cherish the way he was introduced to a galaxy far, far away.

And because I want him to know that many years before, his dad discovered them at the same age.

But we’re hiring a babysitter so we can go see The Last Jedi. Sorry, kid.

There comes the point in the writing process when your work is finished, and the book is out the door. But there remains an emptiness, that a thing you toiled on for so long is no longer an active part of your life.

That all changes when the galleys arrive.

Just holding a physical book with your name on the cover and your words on every page is quite an experience. I began working on Magicians Impossible in April of 2014. that was three years and a month ago, and now I’m holding the (nearly) finished book in my hands. This is the uncorrected proof, so it’s got some spelling errors and formatting screw-ups. I actually sent in my requested changes as these were being printed – changes that will be incorporated into the final version of the book.

I have eight of these galleys, and my agent has the other two. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with these. I know some authors like to do giveaways and contests, but I’d rather save those for the proofed version of the book, not one that needs fixing. Right now it looks like I’ll be saving them to fill in gaps with publicity and promotion. SMP’s publicity and marketing departments are first-rate, but there are always going to be things that crop up requiring a galley copy – that podcast interview, that radio show.

So where do I go from here? Well, onward and upward. I have a novel I’m currently drafting, and just sent my agent a proposal for another book project I hope to do. I’m not one for self-reflection on work I’ve done. I don’t even own copies of the film/TV projects I have written that were produced. For me it’s always about the next project, the next story.

But having these around? It’s nice. really nice. I can’t wait to add more to my shelves.

I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but I have finally, FINALLY finished Magicians Impossible.

I think.

Yesterday, after two and a half weeks of review, I finished my pass on the copy proof – that’s where the publisher sends you your book as it will look on the printed page.

What, you thought I was going to show you an actual page from the book? Sorry, you want to read it, you have to buy it first.

What the author does is read it, front to back, checking for typos, improper punctuation, minor tweaks and such. Despite the author (hopefully) proofing, then the editor, then the copy editor, then the author again, stuff still falls through the cracks.

I am pleased to report that the copy proof edit wasn’t too severe. Mostly it was correcting punctuation, flagging some miss-spelled words, flagging some missing ones, correcting a couple minor story errors (necessitating the removal of a single paragraph that was a little redundant to only the slowest of readers by that point) and catching some word and phrase repetition – stuff that the writer and probably no-one else will notice. Each chapter ran two to three fixes. I went whole stretches of five to seven pages without error. The ones that required a little more work were the ones that had undergone some heavy revision during the copy-edit phase.

According to the publisher’s documents this was the “first pass” with three more on the way (assuming the book needs it). I’m told a copy editor will take a look at it next to catch what I missed. then it’ll come back to me for the third pass to approve their changes. There’s even room for a final pass, but I think we caught most if not all of it by that point.

Then it goes to the printers.

Then it’s sent to bookstores.

Then it hits shelves.

Then people read it.

Then it’s finally, finally finished.

Except the publicity.

Except the signings.

I can’t remember who it was who said it, but I am in agreement with them that “art isn’t art until it’s seen. Until then it’s just indulgence.” Magicians Impossible, all 390 pages of it, i might add, will be released September 12, 2017. It will be reviewed (favorably and unfavorably I expect because you can’t please all of the people all of the time), people will buy it. Hopefully enough to make the experience all worthwhile.

[Some late-breaking news was that the audio book rights for Magicians sold for double what St. Martins’ was asking for and expecting. When I have more details I’ll pass them on, if audio-books are your thing]

What’s next for me? More writing, obviously. I’m trying to get my follow-up book into shopping shape sooner than later. I’m also hoping to take some actual time off this summer to not work, but with Magicians pending I have a limited window to strike.

That’s why I recently became a member of the ITW (International Thriller Writers) and have plans to attend their big annual meet-up this July in NYC.

I also have a new book proposal I’ve started sketching that, if it happens, will be something of a fulfillment of a childhood dream.